Have You Got Any Castles?
Have You Got Any Castles?, reissued as Have You Got Any Castles, is a 1938 Merrie Melodies cartoon directed by Frank Tashlin. Plot As the cartoon opens, following the cuckoo clock, the town crier (a caricature of Woollcott), after a brief introduction, introduces four monsters who introduce themselves roaring, but then dance a minuet. As characters from other books cheer them on, the globe-shaped protagonist of The Good Earth prays by his bedside. The library is panned over to the right, revealing the books The Invisible Man with an invisible man dancing, Topper (a novel from a series by Thorne Smith, as well as a film series) with a similar theme, The Thirty-Nine Steps and "Bojangles" Robinson dancing down the steps, and the novel So Big, and The Green Pastures which turn into a big band presentation of Swing for Sale led by a caricature of Cab Calloway. Panning over the cheering crowd, the camera reveals a singing Heidi, a literal Thin Man walking over into the White House Cook Book and coming out fat on the cover of a Great Works of Art book performing literally, and three Little Women and other characters singing together with the characters of The House of the Seven Gables and a drumming bulldog -- a play on Bulldog Drummond. Next, Louis Pasteur mixes chemicals from test tubes until they blow up, revealing Pasteur in Seventh Heaven. Also appearing is Captain Bligh on the Mutiny on the Bounty. None of this pleases a sleeping Rip Van Winkle complaining about Old King Cole being a noisy old soul while using The Valiant Little Tailor's scissors to snip hair from Uncle Tom to plug his ears. The music gets louder, with The Three Musketeers playing, Drums along the Mohawk providing a beat, and a character from Mother India also plays along. Then, Emily Host scolds Henry VIII for his rudeness. Rip takes scissors from The Valiant Little Tailor and tries to use them on a character from Uncle Tom's Cabin, only to be beaten back. Diamond Jim comes along pitching mortgage payments as the Drums Along the Mohwak beat louder, Henry VIII becomes even more gluttonous, and Oliver twists. W.C. Fields with a red nose (a play on So Red the Rose), and the Pied Piper join in. The Musketeers become Three Men on a Horse, grabbing the Seven Keys to Baldpate along the way, and free the Prisoner of Zenda over Aladdin's objections. As the Three Men pass The Informer, he whispers to Little Boy Blew who then trumpets for a Charge of the Light Brigade. Robinson Crusoe also fires at the Three Men, along with guns from All Quiet on the Western Front and backup cavalry from Under Two Flags. With the incessant firing, Rip has had enough, and opens a book entitled The Hurricane, which then blows all of the characters away, making them all be put into a book. The town crier than appears to conclude the cartoon, with Rip sleeping on the cuckoo clock (with its cuckoo muzzled; see Censorship below for information about the beginning and ending). Availability *(1991) LaserDisc - The Golden Age of Looney Tunes, Vol. 1, Side 1: 1930's Musicals *(1991) VHS - The Golden Age of Looney Tunes, Vol. 1: 1930's Musicals *(2004) DVD - Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 2, Disc 4 (with the Alex Woollcott scenes reinstated for the first time since its theatrical release and DVNR) *(2008) DVD - Varsity Show (1995 Turner dubbed version, added as a bonus) Censorship *After this film's initial release, Alexander Woollcott, the voice of the town crier, requested that his caricature in this cartoon be cut for reissue after his death. The cuts were later restored when the cartoon was released on DVD. The cuts are as follows: **After the cuckoo clock sounds and the camera pans over the library, the shadow of the Town Crier appears, which then fades out to the books being presented.http://www.intanibase.com/gac/looneytunes/censored-h.aspx **The cartoon ends after Rip Van Winkle blows away the fighting cowboys and Indians by opening a book called "Hurricane", and then the then-recent book Gone with the Wind pops up before fading out.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rnJnI-Wdtqs *On TBS, in addition to the above cuts made for the reissue, the following scenes were cut: **Caricatures of Bill Robinson tap dancing in a book called "The 39 Steps", and the immediate next scene of Cab Calloway singing "I've Got Swing For Sale", reused from Clean Pastures. ***It should be noted that the scene's unedited appearance on Cartoon Network in the late 1990s into the early 2000s on the installment show, The Acme Hour, makes it the closest a Censored Eleven cartoon has ever made it to airing on American television. **Rip van Winkle twice stealing scissors from "The Valiant Little Tailor" and using them to cut Uncle Tom's hair to use as ear plugs (the second time resulting in Uncle Tom punching Rip van Winkle in the face and cutting his beard off). Notes/Goofs *This cartoon was re-released into the Blue Ribbon Merrie Melodies program on February 1, 1947. *The cartoon entered the public domain in 1966 when its last rightsholder, United Artists (successor-in-interest to Associated Artists Productions), failed to renew the original copyright within the required 28-year period. *The DVD restored version of this short changes the ending music to the 1941-55 rendition of Merrily We Roll Along contra to the original negative ending with the 1937-38 rendition, as evident from the LaserDisc. *The US 1995 print has red borders at the opening titles and retains its original ending music cue, while EU 1995 print does not have borders and replaces its original ending music cue with 1941-1955 Merrie Melodies one. *The daily publication Daily Film Daily called the short a "fine fantasy", and gave it the following review. http://tralfaz.blogspot.com/2013/12/snow-white-on-move.html *The caricature of Alexander Woollcott in this short is a human version of the owl caricature in another Tashlin short, "The Woods Are Full of Cuckoos", which was released the year prior, and had similar mannerisms. The theme of the short is similar to another 1937 Frank Tashlin short, "Speaking of the Weather". References See also *"Book Revue", which uses a similar plotline, but is more comedic. Category:Merrie Melodies Shorts Category:1938 Category:Shorts Category:Blue Ribbon reissues Category:Cartoons written by Jack Miller Category:Cartoons with music by Carl W. Stalling Category:Cartoons written by Tedd Pierce Category:Cartoons with orchestrations by Milt Franklyn Category:Cartoons with film editing by Treg Brown Category:Cartoons with sound effects edited by Treg Brown Category:Cartoons with backgrounds by Art Loomer Category:Cartoons with characters voiced by Mel Blanc Category:Cartoons with characters voiced by Tedd Pierce Category:Caricatures of real people Category:Cartoons produced by Leon Schlesinger Category:Cartoons in a.a.p. package Category:One-Shot Cartoons Category:Public domain films Category:Cartoons with missing Leon Schlesinger credits